“What Screams ‘This Company Is Not A Good Place To Work’?” (45 Answers)
There’s no such thing as a ‘perfect’ company. However, that doesn’t mean that employers shouldn’t do their best to create supportive workplace environments so that their staff can reach their full potential. Some workplaces, however, are the stuff of nightmares that staff dread to return to. Toxic environments aren’t just bad for the employees, though—they harm the bottom line, too.
Knowing how to spot the signs early on can help you avoid a ton of disappointment and frustration later down the line. The members of the r/AskReddit community shared the biggest red flags to look out for that indicate a company might be an awful place to work. Read on to see what they had to say.
When you arrive for your interview and you’re being led to the interview room, you lock eyes with some of the employees and they slowly shake their heads “no”.
Toxic workplace environments are absolutely awful for employees’ mental health. However, they also have a deeply negative impact on a company’s finances, too. If you constantly have to replace people who quit due to stress and mistreatment, you’re eating into your profits.
Research commissioned by SHRM in 2019 found that 58% of employees who quit their jobs due to workplace culture said that their managers are the main reason they left. The cost of this high turnover rate is a whopping $223 billion over 5 years.
Idk if anyone else has gotten this but a bar I used to work at after they hired me said “We could use good looking woman on our team”. Anything to do with “We could use [insert gender or race or anything else here]” generally is a red flag for me.
In the interview ask them “What opportunities for advancement will there be?”
If they cant come up with anything, you’re either applying for a dead end position, or the company has no concept of employee retention and advancement, both of which are huge red flags.
‘We’re like a family.’ Just walk out. Hearing this means there will be cliques, and expectations to work long hours and to put up with some REALLY shady stuff. There are no outliers with this red flag.
The SHRM report also found that just 38% of American workers were ‘very satisfied’ with their current job, while 49% have thought about leaving. A fifth of respondents have left their jobs due to the workplace culture there, while a fourth say that they dread going to work, don’t feel safe voicing their opinions about work-related problems, and don’t feel respected or valued at work.
76% of respondents point out that it’s their managers who set the culture of their workplace. Meanwhile, 36% of employees have stated that their managers do not know how to lead a team.
Someone leaves, their responsibilities get piled onto someone else, and the business thinks it’s working so why hire a replacement? Then that person eventually caves and now two jobs are piled onto the next person. By the time the company thinks they *have to* hire someone nobody wants to do 3 people’s work for 1 persons pay.
Talking to your manager, HR, boss, or union representative can help you tackle all the various problems that pop up at work. If they’re genuinely open to change and willing to make your stay at the company better—fantastic.
However, at the end of the day, we’re all personally responsible for setting the boundaries for how we want to be treated and what our work-life balance looks like.
If you find yourself chronically exhausted, drained, and demotivated at work, at some point, it might be time to look for better opportunities elsewhere. Your physical and mental health is worth prioritizing over petty office squabbles, tyrannical managers, and toxic coworkers.
When the people interviewing you are anxious and tired.
When they say disparaging things about the person you’re replacing, or about the team you’re joining (with the hope that YOUR expertise will fix this seemingly “sub-par” team. In those situations, you will soon discover that you’re joining a team of overworked people with no resources that some general manager likes to c**p on, but not support).
One of my first jobs always had a sign in the window that said “we’re hiring”. So I applied, got the job along with one other person, but they never took the sign down. The job was awful, and it caused me impending doom anxiety every day I had to go there.
After I was fired (lol) I would walk by every so often and there was still the “we’re hiring” sign in the window.
Speaking from experience: met with the hiring manager for an interview, got the offer at the table, they actually gave me more than advertised because of my experience, I started Monday, 8am.
Showed up bright and early. The department manager, office manager, and store manager had no idea who I was or that I was coming.
The most toxic person that consistently gets in fights with both other employees and customers got promoted to a management position because she’s friends with the store manager and really good at kissing the high ups a*s.
– “We’re like a family here.”
– “We don’t do drama.”
– “We offer great perks like a pool table.”
– “We want believers here.”
– “We always do a trial employment first.”
– “After the 6th round of interviews, we’ll make a decision.”
– “The pay is low but only for a little while.”
– “We’re in the process of rebuilding.”
– “Are you willing to work weekends?”
– “We need someone who doesn’t mind being on-call all hours of the day.”
– “We’re not for everyone. Only the strong survive here.”
– “You’ll be reporting to 3 people from different departments.”
– “We’ll I’m interviewing you now because he was let go yesterday.”
– “Don’t worry about the pay. Look at the opportunity!”.
Anything with a vague job description, especially if they do a mass interview. I spent 3 months at a well known retail and grocery inventory service until they screwed me out of nearly $500 in pay and wanted me to adjust my school schedule around them. That’s the only time I have ever ghosted a job.
Stay-on bonuses. I know these can be viewed either way, but in my experience, when companys pay bonuses for ur 3-year, 5-year, etc anniversary it seems they have trouble keeping people around. Especially if the amounts seem exorbitant. That is often because they rarely pay them out because everyone is gone before then.
When they say they have an open door policy, but you watch someone use it to report something, and they get punished/harassed for doing it, and the person they reported has nothing happen to them.
Also, if mangt tells you at said meeting that going to HR, they will open an invitation into both of you, and end the end, you both will be punished, so best not talk to HR.
But they make you watch videos on workplace harassment/bullying and how much they care, and will stop it.
When the staff keep dieing and /or develop severe chronic illness.
This happened at a high profile US finance firm that had a London office in which I worked.
In fact, isn’t this a common occurrence in high profile financiers? I can think of two other such companies whose staff committed s*****e or literally worked themselves to death. It just never gets talked about.
Walk in and realize I’m only person there that isn’t white.
You think 2023 is different until folks asking where you’re from, touching your hair, and generally just acting like you’re some exotic display and not their coworker.
I had an interview once where I asked the interviewer, “what is your favorite thing about working at this company”, and she sat there for like an awkward 10 seconds and then was just like, “I just took this job after I graduated college because it was the first place that gave me an offer….but I guess the experience has been good”
Toxic behavioral patterns to stem confidence and growth in others. It’s not just immature, it’s sad.
If you see a small few people working and majority of them f*****g around.
“How long has your longest, non-manager employee been with you?”
“I dunno. Maybe …. a year and a half? Why?”.
Multiple levels of middle management who do nothing besides work up rather than down.
When the job posting doesn’t say what the job is and have a weirdly high pay.
When you mention the company elsewhere and another person has formerly worked there and has an outraged look of disgust on their face and tells you every bad about it.
Look at the cars in the employee parking lot. If they are all beat up and very old, you are not going to be paid well.
When they take away extra ways for you to make money because you apparently do your job too well (so they have to pay more). Never felt my motivation die faster.
Owner refuses to give raises that actually add up to something, then goes on a two week trip in his own personal plane. There is less than 20 of us.
The workers frequently go out after work in a group and get pretty drunk.
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There’s no such thing as a ‘perfect’ company. However, that doesn’t mean that employers shouldn’t do their best to create supportive workplace environments so that their staff can reach their full potential. Some workplaces, however, are the stuff of nightmares that staff dread to return to. Toxic environments aren’t just bad for the employees, though—they harm the bottom line, too.
Knowing how to spot the signs early on can help you avoid a ton of disappointment and frustration later down the line. The members of the r/AskReddit community shared the biggest red flags to look out for that indicate a company might be an awful place to work. Read on to see what they had to say.
When you arrive for your interview and you're being led to the interview room, you lock eyes with some of the employees and they slowly shake their heads "no".
Toxic workplace environments are absolutely awful for employees’ mental health. However, they also have a deeply negative impact on a company’s finances, too. If you constantly have to replace people who quit due to stress and mistreatment, you’re eating into your profits.
Research commissioned by SHRM in 2019 found that 58% of employees who quit their jobs due to workplace culture said that their managers are the main reason they left. The cost of this high turnover rate is a whopping $223 billion over 5 years.
Idk if anyone else has gotten this but a bar I used to work at after they hired me said “We could use good looking woman on our team”. Anything to do with “We could use [insert gender or race or anything else here]” generally is a red flag for me.
In the interview ask them “What opportunities for advancement will there be?”
If they cant come up with anything, you’re either applying for a dead end position, or the company has no concept of employee retention and advancement, both of which are huge red flags.
'We're like a family.' Just walk out. Hearing this means there will be cliques, and expectations to work long hours and to put up with some REALLY shady stuff. There are no outliers with this red flag.
The SHRM report also found that just 38% of American workers were ‘very satisfied’ with their current job, while 49% have thought about leaving. A fifth of respondents have left their jobs due to the workplace culture there, while a fourth say that they dread going to work, don’t feel safe voicing their opinions about work-related problems, and don’t feel respected or valued at work.
76% of respondents point out that it’s their managers who set the culture of their workplace. Meanwhile, 36% of employees have stated that their managers do not know how to lead a team.
Someone leaves, their responsibilities get piled onto someone else, and the business thinks it's working so why hire a replacement? Then that person eventually caves and now two jobs are piled onto the next person. By the time the company thinks they *have to* hire someone nobody wants to do 3 people's work for 1 persons pay.
Talking to your manager, HR, boss, or union representative can help you tackle all the various problems that pop up at work. If they’re genuinely open to change and willing to make your stay at the company better—fantastic.
However, at the end of the day, we’re all personally responsible for setting the boundaries for how we want to be treated and what our work-life balance looks like.
If you find yourself chronically exhausted, drained, and demotivated at work, at some point, it might be time to look for better opportunities elsewhere. Your physical and mental health is worth prioritizing over petty office squabbles, tyrannical managers, and toxic coworkers.
When the people interviewing you are anxious and tired.
When they say disparaging things about the person you're replacing, or about the team you're joining (with the hope that YOUR expertise will fix this seemingly "sub-par" team. In those situations, you will soon discover that you're joining a team of overworked people with no resources that some general manager likes to c**p on, but not support).
One of my first jobs always had a sign in the window that said “we’re hiring”. So I applied, got the job along with one other person, but they never took the sign down. The job was awful, and it caused me impending doom anxiety every day I had to go there.
After I was fired (lol) I would walk by every so often and there was still the “we’re hiring” sign in the window.
Speaking from experience: met with the hiring manager for an interview, got the offer at the table, they actually gave me more than advertised because of my experience, I started Monday, 8am.
Showed up bright and early. The department manager, office manager, and store manager had no idea who I was or that I was coming.
The most toxic person that consistently gets in fights with both other employees and customers got promoted to a management position because she's friends with the store manager and really good at kissing the high ups a*s.
- “We’re like a family here.”
- “We don’t do drama.”
- “We offer great perks like a pool table.”
- “We want believers here.”
- “We always do a trial employment first.”
- “After the 6th round of interviews, we’ll make a decision.”
- “The pay is low but only for a little while.”
- “We’re in the process of rebuilding.”
- “Are you willing to work weekends?”
- “We need someone who doesn’t mind being on-call all hours of the day.”
- “We’re not for everyone. Only the strong survive here.”
- “You’ll be reporting to 3 people from different departments.”
- “We’ll I’m interviewing you now because he was let go yesterday.”
- “Don’t worry about the pay. Look at the opportunity!”.
Anything with a vague job description, especially if they do a mass interview. I spent 3 months at a well known retail and grocery inventory service until they screwed me out of nearly $500 in pay and wanted me to adjust my school schedule around them. That's the only time I have ever ghosted a job.
Stay-on bonuses. I know these can be viewed either way, but in my experience, when companys pay bonuses for ur 3-year, 5-year, etc anniversary it seems they have trouble keeping people around. Especially if the amounts seem exorbitant. That is often because they rarely pay them out because everyone is gone before then.
When they say they have an open door policy, but you watch someone use it to report something, and they get punished/harassed for doing it, and the person they reported has nothing happen to them.
Also, if mangt tells you at said meeting that going to HR, they will open an invitation into both of you, and end the end, you both will be punished, so best not talk to HR.
But they make you watch videos on workplace harassment/bullying and how much they care, and will stop it.
When the staff keep dieing and /or develop severe chronic illness.
This happened at a high profile US finance firm that had a London office in which I worked.
In fact, isn't this a common occurrence in high profile financiers? I can think of two other such companies whose staff committed s*****e or literally worked themselves to death. It just never gets talked about.
Walk in and realize I’m only person there that isn’t white.
You think 2023 is different until folks asking where you’re from, touching your hair, and generally just acting like you’re some exotic display and not their coworker.
I had an interview once where I asked the interviewer, “what is your favorite thing about working at this company”, and she sat there for like an awkward 10 seconds and then was just like, “I just took this job after I graduated college because it was the first place that gave me an offer….but I guess the experience has been good”
Toxic behavioral patterns to stem confidence and growth in others. It’s not just immature, it’s sad.
If you see a small few people working and majority of them f*****g around.
"How long has your longest, non-manager employee been with you?"
"I dunno. Maybe .... a year and a half? Why?".
Multiple levels of middle management who do nothing besides work up rather than down.
When the job posting doesn’t say what the job is and have a weirdly high pay.
When you mention the company elsewhere and another person has formerly worked there and has an outraged look of disgust on their face and tells you every bad about it.
Look at the cars in the employee parking lot. If they are all beat up and very old, you are not going to be paid well.
When they take away extra ways for you to make money because you apparently do your job too well (so they have to pay more). Never felt my motivation die faster.
Owner refuses to give raises that actually add up to something, then goes on a two week trip in his own personal plane. There is less than 20 of us.
The workers frequently go out after work in a group and get pretty drunk.
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